Questions on daily cage care

[natertot]

Hey everyone! I am a brand new chinchilla owner, I picked him on Saturday and named him Kirby. I've been doing a lot of reading on this forum and I have already learned a lot, but I do have a more specific question. I was given a rather small cage to go along with him, so it gets dirty rather quickly. I use Kaytee bedding and leave about 1.5 inches thick in his cage (which measures about 16x24), and was wondering, do I need to remove his droppings daily? Or do I only spot clean the bedding that looks like it was urinated on? I'm planning on buying a larger cage soon.

 

[Chinmama]

I think it's personal preference. I usually spot clean daily and deep clean weekly - unless someone has an unusually busy night and destroys their cage.

 

[Godofgods]

Yea, it depends on your personal variables and how you have things set up. I use litter pans but i have two chins that dont like to use them. So every morning i have to spot clean with paper towels. Then once/twice a week change the litter out.

 

[CalicoPrairie]

My setup is different from yours, but here goes anyway. All of my chins are on fleece pads, so they pee and poop on them every. single. night. A LOT. So, every morning, I dump all the poop off and turn over the pads. I change those every Sunday and Wednesday. They all have tiles in their cages, so I brush all the poop off and clean with vinegar/water solution every other day. However, one of my guys pees on his every night, so I clean his every day pretty much, unless time is very short, then I just dry it off and get it cleaned the next day. I do the same with shelving (remove poop), but I clean those with vinegar/water once per week. I sand those once a month as well with a piece of sandpaper. Basically, I remove all the poop from the cage, turn the fleece so they aren't walking on wet fleece or tiles and sort of "reset" their cage to clean again each morning. All of their cages are at least 4 square feet, with 3 of those being upstairs/downstairs style. The other just has lots of shelves and hammocks to give the the opportunity to get higher in the cages.

Ok that was the $64,000 answer to a $5 question. Ha.